How and why did our rivers become paved?

Further Reading of Sources Consulted

The above resources provide a generalized and annualized accounting of the transformations to Milwaukee’s waterways from the 1950s to 1970s. It is intended to familiarize the young general audience with an understanding of the sweep of changes that led to the current challenges faced by contemporary engineers, policymakers, and the public. The primary source is annual reports of the Milwaukee Sewerage Commissions, held at the Milwaukee Public Library. Annual reports reviewed were from 1930 through 1974.

For a more detailed account of the political history involved in watercourse improvement, Chapter Five of Nick Schuelke’s August 2014 master’s thesis in geography at UW-Milwaukee, Urban River Restoration and Environmental Justice: Addressing Flood Risk Along Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic River, is recommended reading. Schuelke pays special attention to how the flooding of 1960 and varying political pressure affected public decision-making around river channelization in wake of dramatic and damaging flooding. He also highlights intergovernmental conflict between the Milwaukee Parks Commission and Sewerage Commission over the authority and intended public end use of land parcels surrounding urban waterways. My brief report does not go into depth on these topics, though I summarize the intense pressures due to population, density, and development that led to even concrete channels designed to whisk away floodwaters not being enough to protect against urban flooding. I am indebted to Alexandra Frankel for pointing me to this rich resource.

Also recommended is the 2017 white paper by MMSD’s Christopher Magruder and Thomas W. Chapman, A New Era in Flood Management: A Recent History of Flood Management Policies, Programs, and Projects in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage Districts Planning Area (1997-2017). This provides a useful summary of MMSD’s approach to watercourses from the 1990s onward, following the era of “watercourse improvement” chronicled in the resources above. I am indebted to Tom Chapman for also sharing various historic images.

Much work is currently underway or planned to improve our relationship with urban waterways (notably along the Kinnickinnic River) and MMSD’s capital budgets also provide insights into more recent and expected projects. The 2026 proposed budget places the scale of efforts into a broader context. For as costly as implementing a policy of “watercourse improvement” was to society from the 1950s to 1970s, the costs to subsequent rehabilitation work has been and is expected to be even greater. This report does not attempt to balance costs and benefits related to flood management and property values.

Historic aerial images available through Milwaukee County Land Information Office remain invaluable at visually communicating change over time. As does John Gurda’s landmark history, The Making of Milwaukee.

In short, this brief should be seen as a beginning in to better understanding Milwaukee’s historic relationship with waterways in the 20th century, not the end.